Family.

Chapter 5:

Lizzie groaned as she regained consciousness. She opened her eyes and looked around, she was in a dark room, she was bound to a chain that hung from the ceiling and there was a doorway in front of her. She guessed that the place must have been the Raptor and the entire room was metal, plus when she looked closer at the doorway she noticed that there was a blue tint where a door should have been. A large figure appeared at the doorway, she heard a small beep and the blue tint disappeared. She strained her eyes to see who it was and held bak a gasp when she realized who the large red lizard must be, but she never did like letting creeps like him have the satisfaction of knowing she was scared so she covered up her fear with her anger and hoped it wouldn't get her killed.

"Draganus I presume?" She spat.

"And you must be the young human that has managed to capture the heart of Wildwing," he smiled at her and cupped her chin pulling her head up so that she had to look at him, she glared back at him, "I commend you he's not an easy catch, although he will be now I have you. . . him, and the rest of the team." He let go and left, saying something to someone she couldn't see but a faint shadow suggested that Siege was outside waiting for his lord.

Once she was sure the two saurians had gone she let out a huge sigh of relief and made a mental note to get thicker windows.

"Why are you here lady," said a small voice, "Draganus usually has ducks here but you're not a duck, what are you?" The owner of the voice came a little closer and Lizzie gasped, she was a saurian but very young, unlike her male counter parts she had bat like wings that were draped around her shoulders like a cloak, she was about the same height as an eight year old girl, but she was deathly thin and she had bruises all over her. Most Lizzie could take in, but the child's eyes caught her attention, Lizzie knew that saurian children theoretically would be a lot bigger, so that being the case the girl couldn't have been much older than six if that, but in her eyes Lizzie saw pain, loss and a dullness that should never be in a child's eye.

"I'm a human, I'm a friend of some ducks," she hesitated before asking her question fearing the answer a little, "who are you little girl?"

"My name's Nina, I'm a slave here."

"Why?"

"Draganus is my daddy, and my mommy ran away form him taking me with her, as punishment he killed her and made me a slave." The little girl looked like she wanted to cry but couldn't, almost as if she didn't know how to anymore. Lizzie got an idea and hoped that Nina had enough of her childhood left to want to help her.

"Nina, do you know how to untie me?"

"Uh huh," she walked up to a switch on the wall and the shackles opened, "lady?" Lizzie walked up to her and knelt down so that their eyes were level, "Are you going to go away and leave me now?" Again Nina looked like she wanted to cry.

"Not if you don't want me to," Lizzie place a hand on the small saurian's shoulder, telling herself not to pull her hand away from the horrible feeling of her emaciated body, "you could come with me if you'd like, but I'll need help getting out of here, think you can show me the way?"

"Sure!" Her little face lit up and she grabbed her new friend's hand pulling her through the door and heading in the opposite direction to the way her 'dad' had taken. They ran down many corridors taking sudden turns, Nina seemed to know the raptor well. A couple of times they would come across hunter drones and Nina would pull her into a hiding place until they had gone or take her a different route to avoid them. Eventually they came to a small vent and Nina pulled off the grate, with a little help from Lizzie and they climbed in. Five minutes later Lizzie was helping Nina pull another grate off the side of the ship and they climbed outside. Once out in the light Lizzie was able to get a good look at her new charge, she had white hair that was pulled into pigtails either side of her head, her face was almost human like, apart from horns that grew from her forehead forming a sort of crown there. Her skin color was a beautiful blue-grey color. Lizzie pulled herself away and looked around, they were in the building site for the new mega mall, just outside of town, it was quite a way but Lizzie knew how to get to the pond from there.

"Well, you don't look like you can run to far," said Lizzie who turned around and pointed to her back, "hop on I'll give you a piggy back ride." Nina jumped on and Lizzie started off at a fast jog. When they were far enough away she slowed and Nina got off and walked herself. As they entered the main city, Lizzie started looking around for a phone to call Wing and found one after about five minutes. She tried the pond but no one answered, then she tried a number he'd given her that would take her straight through to his comm.

"Wing here, who's this?"

"Wildwing it's Lizzie."

"Lizzie, where are you you're apartment's a pile of ash, I though you were in it, I – I thought you were – were," the tone in his voice alone showed the worry he felt.

"I'm near the edge of town, close to that new mall that's being built," silence, he was obviously expecting her to tell him what had happened, "I had a little visit form your friends the saurians . . . "

"What?!"

"Let me finish will you! They took me to their ship and told me they were going to use me to capture you guys, anyway, there was this little saurian slave girl, she set me free and we escaped, could you come pick us up before Draganus finds us again, please."

"We're on our way!" He shut down his comm., "Guys! I know where Lizzie is, but she's in trouble, we have to go pick her up!" The ducks raced to the migrator and sped towards where Lizzie said she had been. Wildwing pulled the vehicle to a halt and the got out to look for her and the child she'd mentioned.

"Ahh" yelled Dive as he dodged a shot, "Saurians," he yelled as he took out his blaster and opened fire at the chameleon. Duke made his way away form the fight and onto one of the close buildings so that he could come around form behind.

"Find the girl and that brat, or I'll have your hide chameleon!" Duke chuckled, Lizzie didn't seem to be as helpless as he thought she was. He started to look around and something caught his eye, someone was just closing a manhole cover form the underside. He raced over making sure the chameleon couldn't see him and slipped into the sewers. He made his way through the sewers following some faint footprints on the damp floor, as he turned a corner he leapt out of the way narrowly missing a piece of wood.

"Oh! Duke!" Lizzie turned a bright shade of red and put her hand over her mouth, "I thought you were a saurian!"

"Yeah well next time I'll remember ta shower," he looked past Lizzie to see the little saurian girl Wing had told them about, "hey, you must be, that little girl right?" he held out his hand to the tiny saurian but she shied away and hid behind Lizzie, "Come on kid I won't hurt ya, I promise, I'm a nice guy, really."

"That's a matter of opinion Duke," Lizzie and Duke looked behind to see Mallory heading towards them, "is this the saurian brat?"

"Mallory!" Nina clung onto Lizzie for dear life and tried to hide herself even more, "Don't be so mean she's just a little girl! It's okay Nina."

"She's right Mallory, we can't judge her for what her elders have done," said Wildwing behind her, "beside it doesn't look like they've been taking care of her properly, she shouldn't be a slave." Mallory huffed and stomped back to the migrator calling Lizzie everything under the sun.

The ducks took Nina back to the pond and although they wanted to ask her a few questions as to where she came from she fell asleep on Lizzie's lap before they even got there. Wildwing couldn't help but to smile as he glanced back at his girlfriend and the little girl on her lap. Whether she knew she was doing it or not Lizzie was stroking Nina's hair the way his mother used to stroke his when he was small. He pulled up in the hanger, went over to the two and gently lifted the sleeping child, she stirred ever so slightly but stayed asleep. He took her to his room, he could always sleep on the couch, and placed her in his bed, he pulled the covers around her and walked out turning the lights off as he went. He made his way to the infirmary where he was sure the others or at least Tanya would have forced Lizzie to go so that Tanya could be sure she was all right. Nina would probably get a similar check up in the morning but for now she could sleep in a quiet room where she wouldn't be disturbed.

"Being a model patient I see?" he said as he walked into the infirmary to find Lizzie with her back to a wall looking nervously at a piece of cloth in Tanya's hand, Canard and Silver were laughing in a corner, everyone else seemed to be elsewhere.

"I need to clean a wound and you're girlfriend is being uncooperative," Tanya, sighed and gave up, "she's got a nasty cut on her shoulder at the base of her neck and she refuses to let me clean it."

"That stuff hurts!"

"Baby!" Chuckled Wildwing, which made Canard and Silver laugh all the harder.

"Hey! I'm not a baby, not in the way you mean anyway!" she added quietly, "I would just rather do it myself thank you!" Tanya just rolled her eyes and walked out followed by Canard and Silver who could barely stand. Wildwing quietly walked over to where the antiseptic sat and placed some on a new piece of cloth. He took Lizzie's hand a sat her down, she resisted a little at first but had to admit she was a little tired so allowed him to gently lay her hair to the side and sit down close to her so that he could get a better look, Tanya was right it was a nasty cut, it was obviously where they'd hit her when they had knocked her out, the area was swollen and was almost black from bruising and in the center there was a long gash that wasn't amazingly deep but it was bleeding a little and needed to be bandaged. He leant a little closer and dabbed the cloth on the wound and she flinched a little.

"Sorry," he kept one hand on her shoulder nearest him he rubbed it a little to try and take her mind off the pain, she closed her eyes and leant into him making herself comfortable as he worked. As he was doing this Phoenix came to find him, but stopped short of the door when she saw the touching scene, she heard how Lizzie had refused point blank to let Tanya do it but here she was letting Wildwing do everything and not even making a sound. She leant in the doorway for a while and watched her brother lovingly clean Lizzie's wound and then bandage it, so carefully you'd think she were a porcelain doll that would break if you were too ruff with her. She decided that she would talk to Wildwing later, what she had to say could wait, so she left. "Lizzie, honey, there's something I wanna ask you."

"Uh huh?" she asked sleepily, snuggling into his strong body a little more.

"I think you need to move in with us," Lizzie looked up at him, "I, I don't want you to get hurt because of me, you'll be safer in the pond from any of our enemies and I'd feel a whole lot better, what do you say?"

"Have you run this by the others yet?"

"Well I haven't had the chance, but seeing as your apartment's rubble you'll need somewhere to live and you get on with most of us right? So do you want to?"

"I'd love to," she sat up so she could kiss his beak, "but ask the others first, okay?"

"Sure." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, soon they made themselves a little more comfortable on the bed and spent the night in each other's arms.